Autumn Foliage

Pedro Francisco Daura y Garcia (1896-1976) was born in Minorca, Spain and raised in Barcelona. His father was a violinist in the Barcelona Liceo Orchestra. Daura's mother died when he was seven, leaving behind his father, himself and two younger siblings. His teacher at the School of Fine Arts was Pablo Picasso's father, Jose Ruiz Blasco. In 1910, at the age of fourteen, he rented a studio with fellow artists and sold work in his first exhibition. He went to Paris just before WWI at the age of eighteen, with the support of his father and a letter of introduction from his Godfather, Pablo Casals. In 1920, Daura, along with an Argentinian friend, Gustavo Cochet, designed and made silk batiks for couturiers, a business that was later destroyed by fire. Daura fell while working on a mural in Normady in 1923 and permanently damaged his left hand, rendering it uselss for the remainder of his life.